
CHAPTER I. ADVERTISED IN CIPHER.
CHAPTER II. THE ANNIVERSARY.
CHAPTER III. THE CLEVER PENCIL.
CHAPTER IV. WITH NERVES OF STEEL.
CHAPTER V. AN INTRUSION OF SCIENCE.
A meticulous psychologist spends his mornings mapping the rhythm of his own pulse as he loses himself in fiction, his sphygmograph tracing the ebb and flow of his excitement on smoked paper. One rainy April morning his quiet routine is shattered by a frantic call and a mysterious classified advertisement—an enigmatic code that hints at a strange, unseen force compelling a young woman to reject her own lover.
When the distraught fiancé bursts into the office, drenched and sleepless, he hands over a photograph of his beloved and pleads for help. The psychologist is drawn into a puzzling case that blends scientific curiosity with an uncanny mystery, as the strange “hammering man” seems to wield an inexplicable power over the woman’s will. Listeners are invited to follow Trant’s methodical mind as he untangles cryptic clues, confronts a baffling psychological phenomenon, and races against time to uncover what lies beneath the odd advertisement.
Language
en
Duration
~48 minutes (46K characters)
Publisher of text edition
Project Gutenberg
Release date
Mar 18, 2021
Rights
Public domain in the USA.

1883–1959
Best remembered for the early disaster classic When Worlds Collide, this Chicago-born writer moved easily between science fiction, mystery, and magazine work. He also spent years shaping popular fiction from the editor’s desk, helping bring new stories to a wide audience.
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1872–1951
A journalist turned fiction writer, he helped shape early detective stories by mixing mystery with psychology and scientific reasoning. He is best remembered for the Luther Trant tales written with Edwin Balmer, along with his own magazine fiction and novels.
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